The bar for impressive, meaningful innovation in annual sports games is, admittedly, quite low. We’ll be looking out for it following the game’s September 30 release. That old bugbear did reappear during my hands-on, though – players on both sides going to sleep in order to let a long ground pass reach its intended target, and the sensation that the game has, however momentarily, taken over to ensure a certain outcome takes place on the pitch. You might not like it when it sends you a goal down, but it feels more like eleven men trying to hold a shape, and less like 11 AI routines. The right through ball can cause absolute disarray within a back five. Several players can get drawn into a single press, opening gaps elsewhere. If anything, it feels more human and less perfect in its positioning. The systems are familiar, but the way the AI actually puts them into action does feel different. But it’ll take some forward planning and some attention paid to the body shapes of both team-mates and defenders. It might take you three minutes, or three passes. It takes three matches of my hands-on to score a goal, such is the adjustment to eFootball 2022’s new animations, AI routines, and controls. If you’ve been hearing about Konami’s renewed eye on simulation and thinking ‘sounds difficult’, you’re not wide of the mark. They throw the balls back to players all over the place, not just teleporting to bre-baked animation points. Those pre-match cutscenes in dressing rooms and tunnels that previously had a whiff of Uncanny Valley actually did function to get me excited this time.Īnd look, it’s not the biggest addition, but there are ball boys now. Unreal Engine is the most obvious, flexing its binary biceps to render stadium crowds to a standard we’re simply not used to. It’s also worth noting that while plenty of the conversation since eFootball 2022’s announcement has been about what’s been subtracted in terms of licenses and content, there are additions too. Not the ones who denounce Konami from the rooftops with every subsequent data pack and minor gameplay tweak, but players interested in mastering an initially unforgiving simulation. What I can surmise from the admittedly hazy crystal ball of numerous matches on this build, is that if eFootball 2022 did ship with the sliders as is, much of the community would embrace it. Interceptions, I’m told, won’t be as easy or as frequent, passing is to be tweaked still further, and the overall pace of the action is subject to change. Not just in the usual sense, but that the code’s specifically been tailored to showcase the new aspects of play. Speaking of game speed – let it be noted that the preview build I’m treated to isn’t representative of the finished product.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |